The EU is currently the most viable competitor but it carries many of the same systemic issues of the US. The two, when economic power shifts, will shift together. The EU is an unlikely candidate to unseat the US in dominace of international market issues. It may grow to be a co-conspiritor but the two are too closely linked in methodology and by culture. It will take a significant paradigm shift to move away from current long held, deaply seated practices(habits may be a better word if we define it as many philosophers have).

With all due respect I must disagree. Europe and the US are separated by deep cultural and sociological differences. Put simply, Americans believe in free markets- as do I, mostly. Europeans do not. Europeans like their "cradle-to-the-grave" social security system, despite the mountain of empirical evidence that suggests that this is precisely what's holding them back. And Europe has to deal with far greater internal lobbying, because the EC is made up of 25 member states, and not all of them are created equal. When the French, Spanish, Italians, Brits or Germans decide to get pushy, one of the smaller states invariably loses.

Europe's got a long, long way to go before it becomes a truly viable candidate to unseat the US. While America has made progress, Europe has stagnated. In 2000, the EU came out with the Lisbon Agenda, that aimed to make the EU the world's largest and most competitive economy by 2010.

It's 2006... and the EU has a snowflake's chance in hell of reaching its target!